Title: Using custom post thumbnails
Last modified: August 22, 2016

---

# Using custom post thumbnails

 *  Resolved [Jon Scaife](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonscaife/)
 * (@jonscaife)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/)
 * Hi
 * I would like to use a custom post thumbnail that is created by my theme. Currently
   there doesn’t seem to be a way to do this. I have implemented this by adding 
   some code to the plugin but of course this will be lost when an update is released.
   Is there any chance of adding such a feature. I have included the code I have
   used to make this work for me below.
 * Cheers
 * wordpress-popular-posts.php line 1963 (immediately above `// get image from post/
   Featured Image`)
 *     ```
       else if ($this->user_settings['tools']['thumbnail']['source'] == "custom_size"){
       	$thumb .= get_the_post_thumbnail( $p->id, $this->user_settings['tools']['thumbnail']['field'] );
       }
       ```
   
 * admin.php – after line 204 added
 *     ```
       <option <?php if ($this->user_settings['tools']['thumbnail']['source'] == "custom_size") {?>selected="selected"<?php } ?> value="custom_size"><?php _e("Custom size", $this->plugin_slug); ?></option>
       ```
   
 * admin.php – modified lines 210 and 212, each time replacing the following
 *     ```
       <?php if ($this->user_settings['tools']['thumbnail']['source'] != "custom_field" {?>
       ```
   
 * with
 *     ```
       <?php if ($this->user_settings['tools']['thumbnail']['source'] == "custom_field" || $this->user_settings['tools']['thumbnail']['source'] == "custom_size"){} else {?>
       ```
   
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-popular-posts/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-popular-posts/)

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * (@hcabrera)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5541701)
 * Hi Jon,
 * Why not use [WPP’s filter hooks](https://github.com/cabrerahector/wordpress-popular-posts/wiki/3.-Filters#wpp_custom_html)
   instead? That way, you can alter WPP’s HTML output without modifying plugin’s
   core – and those changes will survive through updates as well.
 *  Thread Starter [Jon Scaife](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonscaife/)
 * (@jonscaife)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5541702)
 * I just followed the suggestion on the FAQ…
    “I want your plugin to have X or 
   Y functionality. Can it be done? If it fits the nature of my plugin and it sounds
   like something others would like to have, there’s a pretty good chance that I
   will implement it (and if you can provide some sample code with useful comments,
   much better).”
 * I thought it would be better to have this functionality built in for people who
   aren’t confident with coding or using filter hooks.
 * I will resort to filter hooks if need be 🙂
 *  Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * (@hcabrera)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5541724)
 * The problem I have with it is that the widget already offers a way to set thumbnail’s
   dimensions from Widgets page, and it’d be redundant -and maybe confusing as well-
   to add this kind of feature in the admin section too.
 * Instead, I could add an option in the widget to select a predefined thumbnail
   size (I’d need to add it to the [wpp] shortcode/wpp_get_mostpopular() as well,
   of course). Something like “pick a thumbnail size or enter its dimensions manually”.
 * What do you think?
 *  Thread Starter [Jon Scaife](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonscaife/)
 * (@jonscaife)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5541848)
 * An option in the widget to set a predefined thumbnail would (I think) work. It
   depends if I understand what it would do correctly 🙂
 * For more context – the problem I was originally looking to work around is to 
   do with the thumbnail size setting. The option to set the thumbnail dimensions
   isn’t as flexible as the wordpress native system. I like to set a maximum width
   and maximum height and use a resize mode which maintains the original aspect 
   ratio without cropping.
 * The native wordpress system allows what they call “soft proportional crop mode”–
   see [http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_image_size](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_image_size)
 * I probably should have said that at the start 🙂
 *  Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * (@hcabrera)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5541854)
 * Yes, that’s exactly what I meant 🙂 The widget would display a list of available
   thumbnail sizes for the user to choose. Alternatively, allow the user to set 
   width & height manually (current behavior).
 *  Thread Starter [Jon Scaife](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonscaife/)
 * (@jonscaife)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5541856)
 * That would be excellent. Cheers 🙂
 *  Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * (@hcabrera)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5541863)
 * [Issue created](https://github.com/cabrerahector/wordpress-popular-posts/issues/52),
   just to make sure I won’t forget hehe.
 *  Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * (@hcabrera)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5541966)
 * Hey Jon,
 * Just released version 3.2.0 with selectable thumbnail post sizes. Give it a try
   and let me know what you think!
 * **Edit:** by the way, changing thumbnail sizes will require clearing WPP’s image
   cache (Settings > WordPress Popular Posts > Tools).
 *  Thread Starter [Jon Scaife](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonscaife/)
 * (@jonscaife)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5542019)
 * Hiya
 * Thanks for the update. I’ve been experimenting with the new version. It still
   isn’t doing quiet what I’d hoped though – it is still stretching images instead
   of respecting the “soft crop”. Is there a reason it is caching the images? I 
   can understand doing so with custom sizes – but I just want it to use the existing
   custom-sized images that already exist in the uploads folder
 * To give you an example – if you take a look at [https://www.jonscaife.com/](https://www.jonscaife.com/)
 * On the left hand side – the widget is titled “popular articles this month”. The
   top article has a thumbnail which is a map of europe. The image is 39x40px and
   exists in [https://www.jonscaife.com/wp-content/uploads/Flag_Map_of_European_Union-39×40.png](https://www.jonscaife.com/wp-content/uploads/Flag_Map_of_European_Union-39×40.png)
   but wordpress popular posts is creating a cached version in [https://www.jonscaife.com/wp-content/uploads/wordpress-popular-posts/737-60×40.png](https://www.jonscaife.com/wp-content/uploads/wordpress-popular-posts/737-60×40.png)
   which it is stretching (via the width and height html attributes) to 60×40
 * For pre-exsting thumbnails (when selected) could you just use the existing images.
   And don’t specify html attributes – let CSS take care of that so it can be customised
   without editing plugin files
 * A second though is also that I display the thumbnail images elsewhere, so by 
   creating a cached version with a different url the same image is effectively 
   being downloaded twice, which wastes bandwidth.
 * Cheers for your support and efforts so far 🙂
 *  Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * (@hcabrera)
 * [11 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5542030)
 * Hi Jon!
 * You’re right, I completely forgot about the width & height attributes. As you
   pointed out, these attributes will stretch the images to a fixed size.
 * I’ll have that corrected on the next release.
 *  Thread Starter [Jon Scaife](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jonscaife/)
 * (@jonscaife)
 * [11 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5542067)
 * Hiya Héctor.
 * Any news on a new release with this fix implemented?
 * Cheers 🙂
 *  Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * (@hcabrera)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5542091)
 * Hi Jon!
 * Sorry for the late reply.
 * > For pre-exsting thumbnails (when selected) could you just use the existing 
   > images. And don’t specify html attributes – let CSS take care of that so it
   > can be customised without editing plugin files
   > A second though is also that I display the thumbnail images elsewhere, so by
   > creating a cached version with a different url the same image is effectively
   > being downloaded twice, which wastes bandwidth.
 * I made a few modifications so that WPP picks up existing thumbnails from the 
   Uploads folder instead of creating new ones, but only if certain conditions are
   met. I discussed this with a couple of folks [here](https://github.com/cabrerahector/wordpress-popular-posts/issues/60),
   you may want to give it a look.
 * > … don’t specify html attributes – let CSS take care of that so it can be customised
   > without editing plugin files.
 * For this, WPP is now relying on the [get_the_post_thumbnail()](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_the_post_thumbnail)
   function to retrieve the image. The downside is that then WPP has no control 
   over the HTML output – WordPress returns the IMG tag with attributes.
 * I found a workaround for that [here](http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/83579),
   but what I don’t like about it is that this modification affects other core functionalities
   as well.
 * > Any news on a new release with this fix implemented?
 * No ETA yet, unfortunately. Work projects have been keeping me away from WPP lately.
 *  Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * (@hcabrera)
 * [11 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5542092)
 * > > … don’t specify html attributes – let CSS take care of that so it can be 
   > > customised without editing plugin files.
   > For this, WPP is now relying on the get_the_post_thumbnail() function to retrieve
   > the image. The downside is that then WPP has no control over the HTML output–
   > WordPress returns the IMG tag with attributes.
   > I found a workaround for that here, but what I don’t like about it is that 
   > this modification affects other core functionalities as well.
 * Scratch that. Just figured out a way to do it and while I was at it also added
   a new option to the admin section: _Responsive support_ – if enabled, WPP will
   strip width & height attributes from image tags. This option will be disabled
   by default.
 *  Plugin Author [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * (@hcabrera)
 * [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5542107)
 * Hi Jon! Long time no see!
 * WPP version 3.2.2 is finally out! (took me a while, but it’s finally here). Please,
   check it out and let me know what you think!

Viewing 14 replies - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

The topic ‘Using custom post thumbnails’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/wordpress-popular-posts/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=1232659)
 * [WP Popular Posts](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-popular-posts/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-popular-posts/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-popular-posts/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-popular-posts/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-popular-posts/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-popular-posts/reviews/)

 * 14 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Hector Cabrera](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hcabrera/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-custom-post-thumbnails/#post-5542107)
 * Status: resolved